ADA Compliance is a complex legal question – there is not a strict definition of what ADA compliance for the web means. We have been through this process with our clients (some of whom have been sued for not being compliant) and it can involve lawyers chiming in to help define what is good enough for your site. I can’t tell you how at-risk your site is in terms of being sued. And of course, this is not legal advice!
It can get expensive. Some small business owners end up just documenting that they did a (free automated) audit, fixed the high-priority items (an invoice can prove they paid us to fix the ADA issues) and then hope that any lawsuit would not be successful since they had made a “reasonable effort”. But it’s a confusing legal landscape and you should bring in your lawyers to weigh in on the risks involved for your company.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses that are open to the public to provide equal access to their goods and services, and courts have ruled that this includes websites. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are internationally recognized standards for making web content more accessible and serve as a guideline but don’t provide a simple, overall scoring system.
One option is to run the site through a variety of free accessibility testers (audit tools):
- Accessibe accessScan
- accessibilitychecker.org
- webaccessibility.com
- wave.webaim.org
- Google Lighthouse
Often there is quite a bit that needs to be done to fix critical issues found on these free, automated audits. You also have to do it on every page, but since many pages share elements (the header, newsletter signup, etc.) fixing some issues will spread throughout the site and other pages, like product pages, will usually only have to be done once and that’ll fix the issues across all of that page type.
Ideally, your legal team will guide us in this process and decide what needs to be fixed and what can be left alone.
Part of the solution can be to use an “overlay tool” for ADA: a web accessibility tool that appears as an overlay on a website, designed to add features like text resizing, color contrast adjustments, screen reader functionality, and other modifications to potentially make a website more accessible to users with disabilities. They may offer back-end AI tools that do things like come up with image “alt” text as well as regular online audits, generation of an accessibility statement and an accessibility certification.
However, it’s tricky if you are relying solely on overlay tools as they often do not fully address underlying accessibility issues and can even create new problems. Most importantly, proper website development practices are crucial for true ADA compliance.
Similar “overlay tool” services:
- userway.org
- Total sites 277,796 (according to builtwith.com)
- $490/yr
- accessibe.com
- Total sites 73,478
- $490/yr (up to 5k visits /month; limit of 1000 pages)
- equalweb.com
- Total sites: 11,654
- Starts at $39/mo for 100 pages
- AccessiblyApp.com
- Total sites: 3,780
- $250/yr (up to 50k visitors)
However, it’s tricky if you are relying solely on overlay tools as they often do not fully address underlying accessibility-related code issues. Full accessibility often requires addressing issues within the website’s core structure. Some overlays can create new accessability problems.
